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The Chinese capital city of Beijing was our entry city which kicked off our 10 day tour of China. It was the first time that Aliya, Asher and I had ever been to China.

Aliya’s first impression of Beijing was the smokey smell and polluted sky which met us as we walked off the plane. Fortunately, Vivienne our tour guide from China Highlights was standing with a sign with our names on it outside baggage claim to whisk us away to the comforts of our Executive Suite at the Marriott City Wall Hotel (which was the kids favorite room in China).

We started our Beijing adventures the next day in Tiananmen Square at “the Gate of Heavenly Peace” which was built in 1415 during the Ming dynasty.  We were amazed to see the double gates – darker outer gate with windows and ornate inner gate for the Emperor.

Tiananmen Square is a very significant place for Mainland China since it was the site of the 1919 May Fourth Movement protests, the 1 October 1949 Proclamation of the Peoples Republic of China by Mao Zedung (who our guide revered as a huge national hero), and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1976 and 1989.

Our first impression of the square was how wide and open it was. There were very few tourists, except for the ones who were coming up to take photos of Aliya and Asher.

The kids had a dose of what life would be like if they were famous with lots of random people taking photos of them.  Most people asked to take photos of them; many did not bother to ask.  One woman in the Beijing airport even stroked Asher’s cheek, ruffled his hair, and pulled his ear!

My favorite was the Mom who asked if she could take a picture of Aliya with her daughter at the Imperial Palace inside the Forbidden City.  She thought Aliya looked so interesting, beautiful and different!  And I thought the same about her daughter!   An interesting cultural study of East meets West and vice versa:

The Forbidden City was Asher’s favorite thing we did the first day because he was so amazed that the bedrooms were so tiny when the palace was so huge.  We walked almost a kilometer just to get through the three ornate gates of the Forbidden City into the Imperial Palace.

Every sculpture had meaning from the egrid with a long neck for long life, to the lion (with a ball under foot) and lioness (with a baby cub under foot) to protect the Emperor. The blue, green, gold, and red colors of the gates and the buildings were so vibrant!

Asher particularly enjoyed the garden of the Imperial Palace that had large porous limestone boulders from the South of China and ornate little buildings to play hide and seek.

My favorite was the Empress Cixi’s Summer Palace, rebuilt in 1888 after the British burned down the original palace at the end of the Opium War in 1860 (the original palace was built by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty in 1752 as a birthday present for his Mom).

 

I loved the reflection of the buildings in the frozen man-made lake, the unique windows in which no shape was the same, the dragon boats, the marble boat, and the beautiful long hand painted corridor – the longest in the world at over 750 meters.

 

 

I also really enjoyed seeing the local people selling traditional sugar coated fruit on sticks and hot roasted sweet potatoes.

After a day of history, Peking Duck, and sight seeing, it was off for an evening of culture and contortions at the “Myth Jingha” Chinese Acrobatics show.  At one point in the show, Asher exclaimed, “I know how they do that:  her legs are not real!  They are made of rubber!

DAY 2 (Beijing):  THE GREAT WALL & OLYMPIC STADIUMS

On our second day in Beijing, we drove about two hours to the Mutianyu Great Wall, which was Asher’s favorite part of the entire trip.  Check out our blog entry on the Great Wall for more great pix.

After exploring the Great Wall, we went to Beijing to visit the Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube.

Aliya loved the Water Cube where the swimming and diving events of the 2008 Summer Games took place.  Architecturally the building is really uniquely made of plastic (like blown up plastic bags with little tiny holes).

But inside, Aliya loved seeing the huge water park.  When she saw it, she exclaimed, “This feels like Heaven!”

Asher enjoyed looking at the fish in the floor, where the pools used to be.  Check out the diving platforms in the background.  Notice that the pools/water are all gone!

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DAY 3 (Beijing):

Our last day in Beijing we visited the Temple of Heaven, which was constructed in the early 1400s as a complex of temples and an altar for the Emperors to worship for good harvests.

 

In the Temple of Heaven park, we enjoyed seeing the retired folks in the park painting poetry with water, playing chess, practicing ballroom dancing, doing tai chi, and kicking a shuttle cock (which we bought after Asher enjoyed playing too).

The kids also enjoyed trying to hear their echo bounce off the wall that encircled the Vault of Heaven.

 

After the Temple of Heaven, we went on a rickshaw tour of one of the many Hutongs in Beijing.  A hutong is an old neighborhood with narrow alleys and houses that share communal bath houses.

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Asher’s favorite part of the day was the Yo Yo Experience during our Hutong Tour. Asher and Aliya both learned how to roll and toss the Chinese yo-yo.

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We concluded our hutong tour with a climb up the steep steps of the Drum tower to see the 25 Drums.